Tim Bascom's "Continental Drift": a Book Review by Arnaldur Stefansson

 I picked up Tim Bascom’s Continental Drift knowing nothing, and left it wanting to know more.
 Drawing on Bascom’s own experiences in East Africa, the collection of short fictions grapples with the dissonance inherent to the western conception of Africa as it compares to the lived experiences of African peoples; explores the off-handedness with which the privileged dismiss the lasting, still-very-present effects of colonialism and racism; and meditates on identity and homeland connection in our increasingly-connected, melting-pot global society. Bascom’s willingness to write both inside and outside of his own perspective amplifies the fierce empathy that permeates the collection. In short, through Bascom’s exploration of postcolonial African poverty, the reader is invited past the veil of Africa as the mysterious other.
 Continental Drift expresses, to my eye, a disappointment towards the incuriosity of western culture. In an age when the obtaining of information has never been easier, we still struggle to see those who live outside of our narrow cultural understanding as equals. To the American runner girl in “The Assigned Seat”, systemic racism like the apartheid of South Africa is a terrible tragedy that happens in countries other than the United States of America—where racism, in her eyes, has been conquered. No ill effects linger. Similarly, Jeff, in “The Guide” struggles to see Jafar as anything other than a lazy swindler, before learning the true reason for why the inhabitant of Lamu Island so desperately wants to work for his money. The American perspective Bascom crafts is not necessarily one of automatic suspicion—though such outlooks are highly prevalent—but, rather, one of incuriosity.
 Still, the aforementioned fierce empathy does not make saints out of kidnappers, or make any excuses for the use of child soldiers. Yet, what Bascom achieves, I think, is an honest glance into what for so many of his eventual readers will be the complete unknown; both the good and the bad, rolled into one to make something truly human.
 This synthesis is important, because Bascom’s ultimate negotiation of the African identity is not one of segregation. The cultural melting pot of East Africa blends Black, Arab, neocolonial and missionary cultures, to name but few. Popular western conceptions of Africa do not often take this diversity into account, an unfortunate fact which all too often serves to relegate African culture to the status of “primitive” or “inferior” in the eyes of the narrow-minded. Continental Drift is a response to this narrow way of thinking. Through Bascom’s efforts to humanize the stranger, we are compelled to question the western conception of the global south as a whole. It is an important message, hopefully to be heard by many.

 -Arnaldur Stefansson

Arnaldur Stefansson is a senior English & Creative Writing double-major from Reykjavík, Iceland. Arnaldur’s work has been published in The Albion Review, as well as in three previous editions of The Waldorf Literary Review, where he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief.